"No, no, a thousand times no!" he cried in despair, knowing all the while he had 997 more no's to go.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Shoe Day: Second Post

SHOES!!!

Yes, dear friends...I am free of the cast at last, and upon reaching home, I celebrated with a lengthy shower that in no way involved extra packing around my knee, a plastic bag, or a balancing act. I washed and scrubbed and scrubbed and washed. And I only feel PARTIALLY human. I think it's going to take a few more showers before I can make a claim to being somewhere around 99% human.

Leave it to me, of course, to immediately discover the DISADVANTAGES of being without the cast.

Being a total contact cast, it was holding everything inside my foot exactly where it should be. I essentially had no moving parts in my foot. Now that parts can move again, some of them hurt. Some of them hurt a lot. =(

There's also the fact that my foot has been...pampered...inside the casts. The inside of those fiberglass monstrosities were not only padded, but an initial layer of what they sometimes called "gel wrap" was put on me. This was a bandaged coated with Calamine lotion. This managed to keep my skin not quite so dry, but then it was also not wet. The basic function was to protect the skin, which tends to be rather delicate on a diabetic, and to prevent the dreaded itching that will often come with a cast. To these extents, it worked. But it also had the effect of softening up the calluses on my feet. Walking in the cast created just enough agitation inside to wear those away. The result: my calluses are GONE! (Dun dun DUUUN!)

Do you know what happened when you have no calluses on your feet and are toting around approximately 190 lbs. on them? IT FREAKIN' HURTS! Seriously, once I was out of the shoes and preparing for my shower, it felt as though I was walking barefoot on sharp gravel.

Aside from those "wonderful" aspects, I am FREE! And freedom means getting back into the realm of physical activity. I just have to be sure to wear the brace whenever I plan on being on my foot for more than only a couple of minutes. Y'see, the brace...well, it's quite the production. It covers most of my lower leg, with metal prongs going into the sole of my shoe. The leather portion that covers so much of my leg needs to be laced up every time I put it on. There's no other way of getting it on and keeping it on. So...bumming around the apartment when I plan on doing nothing in particular? I can be shoeless. Sleeping? Shoeless. Showers? Shoeless. Doing dishes or cleaning up the apartment...SHOES!

Soon, I will head for bed, where I can unwind from this exciting day. And it WAS exciting. Emotionally, anyway. The whole thing about escaping from the cast - hopefully for good - hasn't left me with much energy for anything other than coming here to report to the world, and then crawling into bed to relax.

About Me

Forty-three-year-old engaged male who often moans and groans about the insane drama that is his life. People seem to think I'm a superhero using the persona of a disabled individual as my secret identity. The truth is that no one in their right mind would want to see me in tights. =P